Canada's Immigration

Canada’s immigration refers to the process whereby people move from other regions all over the world to settle in Canada as permanent residence. Majority of such immigrants get full citizenship in Canada, meaning only a few does not acquire citizenship. Over past, many people have flocked into Canada, with the level varying throughout the period depending on the source country of the immigrants (Ninette Kelley and Michael Trebilcock, 100).

The rampant migration into Canada became quite alarming and hence the Canadian government made reforms to its immigration act after 1947. The reforms included the 1976 Immigration Act and the current one being used is the Refugee protection Act that was put in place and implemented in 2002.

Immigrants in Canada are categorized into three groups namely the family class immigrants, the independent immigrants and finally the refugee immigrants. Family class immigrants refer to those people who migrates to the country because their close relatives say parents, brothers or cousins resides in the country. On the other hand, the independent immigrants are those that are accepted as residence of the country on the basis of the immigration acts and regulatory factors such as age of the person intending to be considered a citizen, his or her health status, labor and skills possessed among other things. Refugees’ immigrants are those who migrate into the country in such of serene environment to settle. Refugees are usually as a result of political instability in ones country, which forces him or her to migrate to other country where there is a peaceful coexistence amongst the citizens. A person who is a refugee in Canada is therefore required to renew his or her citizenship, after the expiry of the one given. This will only allow him or her to live in Canada. Incase one is found without a document indicating that he/she is in Canada legally, he/she becomes prosecuted. Statistics shows that the total number of immigrants in 2008 only was 247,243. From the mentioned number, 65567 were from the family class, 21860 were the refugee immigrants and the remaining lot was from the independent immigrant whose solemn purpose was to engage in economic activities within the country. In 2006, Don shows a total of 236756 immigrants migrated to Canada (Don Kerr, 87).

Currently, Canada is a country with wide covering immigration policy hence becoming a reason for the country’s reflection in ethnic diversity. Statistics carried out in 2001 showed that Canada as a country accommodated a total of 34 ethnic groups. Questions hereby arise as to why many people choose to migrate to Canada. Such reasons are as discussed below.

Historically, migration into Canada occurred in four major peaks. This was generally after the colonial periods of British and French colonialists. The first immigration to Canada was at a relatively slow rate, whereby the French settled in rich Quebec and Acadia regions. There was however a small number of American investors and British military persons settled in the region. This was about two centuries ago. The second wave of migration was as a result of British being encouraged to settle in the fertile regions of Canada. Majority of the immigrants were from Britain and Ireland. The immigrants can be said to have migrated to the country willingly after the impact of the 1812 war. British army are said to have migrated to the region so as to counter the massive American invasion that were against their dominance in the region. In addition, the British soldiers wanted to counter the speaking of French which had widely influenced a good fraction of Quebec region. Peace existence in Canada also propelled people from war prone zones to migrate. Events such as the Vietnam War led to massive movement of people to Canada. The third peak of migration was mainly from the continent of Europe. This was solemnly as a result of the emergence of world war one which claimed many lives and led to massive destruction of property. The lucky few who survived the world war had no option but migrate to regions which were less affected by the war disaster. The fourth wave of immigration was from the same continent. This event took place in 1957 and approximately 282000 individuals migrated into Canada. According to Barry, the fifth wave of migration is what Canada is currently undergoing, which major of the immigrants being from south Asia and china (Barry Chiswick, 56).

Since 1970s, Canada’s immigration has mainly been comprised of minorities majorly from developing countries in the world. The massive migration was greatly altered by the revision of the immigration act of 1967. The act has since been used by the reigning government, with minor changes. Below is a graph showing the trend of Canada’s immigration since 1850 to 2002.

People tend to ask themselves why migrate to Canada? Researchers have tried to such questions and some of the reasons they come up with involves political stability, serene business environment, and good educational facilities among others. Whenever there is peace in any country, people from areas which are prone to political turmoil tend to move in search of refuge. Further, with Canada being a multicultural country, people all over the world are attracted since there are minimal chances of racial segregation among other forms of discrimination. We can further say that establishing business in Canada is quite a guarantee of prosperity. This is because of political stability which assures one of investment safety, readily available markets and further enables the investor to readily access the raw materials. Most parts of Canada allow farming activities hence adding value to the country’s portrait. In conclusion, individuals from developing countries are attracted and propelled to migrate to Canada in search of education, employment, refuge among other vital things. Herbert mentioned that Canada is well known to be among the top universities with adequate educational facilities. This ranges from the offer of primary education all the way to tertiary level of education. This fact has therefore stirred individuals from developing nations towards the struggle of obtaining visas for the Canadian state (Herbert Grubel, 124).

To conclude, it is clear that factors such as political stability and quality education are among the current reasons for migration to Canada. The 1967 immigration policy, with minor reforms to it has since allowed Canada as a country to regulate the migration of individuals. The policy has therefore allowed the government to control population to manageable percentage.

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